A question for Resto Druids in Legion

[Yunzi]

I'm maining a Disc Priest in Legion and want to consider the burst healing of Disc compared to other healing specs. It's a widely held belief in the Disc community right now that Legion Disc is the best burst healer in the game and I'd like to do the math to determine whether that's true.

I don't know nearly as much about the Legion Resto Druid toolkit as the experts who have followed the development of the spec and are going to main it in Legion - that's why I'm asking my question here rather than doing my own research.

My question is - over a 21.154 second timeframe (the amount of time of the "ideal" Disc burst healing sequence) what's the Resto Druid spell sequence (considering talents and maximum artifact traits, but no relics) that will provide maximum throughput? Mana efficiency is not a priority but if a slight amount of throughput can be sacrificed for a reasonable gain in mana, that's fine.

We're also assuming no chance of overhealing. All CDs are assumed to be off-cooldown and able to be used. If applicable, assume a 20-player raid.

[theburned]

I'm maining a Disc Priest in Legion and want to consider the burst healing of Disc compared to other healing specs. It's a widely held belief in the Disc community right now that Legion Disc is the best burst healer in the game and I'd like to do the math to determine whether that's true.

I don't know nearly as much about the Legion Resto Druid toolkit as the experts who have followed the development of the spec and are going to main it in Legion - that's why I'm asking my question here rather than doing my own research.

My question is - over a 21.154 second timeframe (the amount of time of the "ideal" Disc burst healing sequence) what's the Resto Druid spell sequence (considering talents and maximum artifact traits, but no relics) that will provide maximum throughput? Mana efficiency is not a priority but if a slight amount of throughput can be sacrificed for a reasonable gain in mana, that's fine.

We're also assuming no chance of overhealing. All CDs are assumed to be off-cooldown and able to be used. If applicable, assume a 20-player raid.

Well you either have ToL or SotF, eitherway the combination would be,
(swiftmend if sotf is specced, or if the ToL cast.)
Wild growth
spam rejuvs (first apply LB)
flourish before wild growth runs out
Essence of g'hanir (want it up for the overlap between both wgs.)
(swiftmend as last spell before WG, again if sotf specced)
wild growth once off cooldown
and then either continue spamming rejuvs or tranq if you count that in.
Ofc this is maximum burst throughput for a 20-22 second frame.

should provide some really serious throughput

[Weissrolf]

With SotF I'd exchange one Rejuv CD for one Lifebloom, because it heals for 66% more HPs in the same timeframe (ticks + final bloom). The final bloom is worth a bit more than 4 ticks of Rejuv. Plus you get another HoT for your Mastery to boost healing on the same player.

Even with Tree of Life this should be good, because not only does LB it still heal more than 1 ToL Rejuv, but in any case you also get another HoT running for Mastery again.

Unfortunately the RNG nature of Dreamwalker and Power of the Archdruid mess with any calculated planing on how they could push Rejuv higher than LB. At least the 50% chance of Dreamwalker should be factored into this, but even then I'd likely still prefer to spend one GCD on a LB for the reliable amount of extra healing.

[Deleted]

Is it me or does 21 seconds seem like an awfully long time for "burst" healing to take effect?

[theburned]

With SotF I'd exchange one Rejuv CD for one Lifebloom, because it heals for 66% more HPs in the same timeframe (ticks + final bloom). The final bloom is worth a bit more than 4 ticks of Rejuv. Plus you get another HoT for your Mastery to boost healing on the same player.

Even with Tree of Life this should be good, because not only does LB it still heal more than 1 ToL Rejuv, but in any case you also get another HoT running for Mastery again.

Unfortunately the RNG nature of Dreamwalker and Power of the Archdruid mess with any calculated planing on how they could push Rejuv higher than LB. At least the 50% chance of Dreamwalker should be factored into this, but even then I'd likely still prefer to spend one GCD on a LB for the reliable amount of extra healing.

You are right, mostly an oversight by me, kinda expected it to be up in the first case I guess, but considering its a 21 sec window, that isnt a very good assumption (still doable, and reapplying it midway without having it run out would be a throughput loss within the timeframe, but so is rejuvs over regrowths (on tank targets) towards the end of the window, not in anyway realistic to do either, so yes, 1 lifebloom application is to be expected.

[Weissrolf]

still doable, and reapplying it midway without having it run out would be a throughput loss within the timeframe

Not necessarily. If you reapply Lifebloom within the last 30% of its duration (4.5 seconds out of 15) it will fire its full bloom healing the very moment you hit the button! So you can reapply it after 10.5 seconds, get the full bloom and then have it run for another 19.5 seconds. If it already ran for a reapplied 19.5 seconds before you start the 21 seconds window then you can reapply it within its last 5.85 seconds (out of 19.5) to get the same effect. So no loss at all.

[Psycofire]

Druids have always been better at extended healing and HPS than burst healing. However, I still consider Tranquility one of the best burst raid heals in the game. Coupled with a well-executed Wild Growth, it makes a Resto extremely good to have in my eyes. That said, it is always good to balance a resto druid with something like a disc priest/holy pally, imo.

[Yunzi]

Is it me or does 21 seconds seem like an awfully long time for "burst" healing to take effect?

Absolutely. But we're talking about Disc priests here - they need to apply several atonement applicators and *then* use several damage spells to do burst healing. The 21 seconds is *their* time frame - since we're trying to do a direct comparison we need to take the same time frame for Druids and compare throughput and mana efficiency.